Harry Potter

Quidditch, the indecipherable sport from Harry Potter, is set to catch the golden snitch in the United Kingdom.

Nearly 20 years after the sport debuted in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in the states — I DON’T WANT TO GET ANY EMAILS ABOUT THAT), Quidditch, the sport in which I have no idea how it’s played, now has an organized, competitive league in the UK. The Quidditch Premier League takes its cues from the U.S.’s Major League Quidditch, meaning it will host high-level competitions and, presumably, offer a rule book explaining why anyone would bother doing anything in this game other than try to catch the golden snitch.

“The Quidditch Premier League will bring a new level of competitive play to the summer months in the United Kingdom. Exact dates are yet to be confirmed, but our tentative schedule for the inaugural season begin in early July 2017 and end in late August 2017.

Inspired by the success of Major League Quidditch in the United States, we will have regional divisions with teams competing against each other in a regular schedule. Each fixture will comprise of three matches, where each team plays the other three teams in the division. The QPL season will conclude with a scintillating championship weekend, bringing the teams from each division together to crown a champion.

Though a UK league has been demanded for years, nobody has truly attempted to bring a project of this scale to British quidditch players across the country. That is, until now.”

Why they don’t include in this explanation is why everyone on the team doesn’t just try and catch the golden snitch. Like, it just seems like that part of the game was included to give Harry an easy way to save the day."

As mentioned, the QPL will be broken down into two divisions: North and South.

South Division:

The London Monarchs – after the residing Royal Family in the capital

The Southwest Broadside – after the seafaring and piratical history in the area

The Southeast Knights – after the legacy of the Battle of Hastings

The Eastern Mermaids – after the many ‘drowned cities’ off the eastern coast

North Division:

The Northern Watch – after the iconic Hadrian’s Wall

The Yorkshire Roses – after the region’s famous symbol

The East Midlands Archers – after the legend of Robin Hood

The West Midlands Revolution – after the heritage of the Industrial Revolution

They even added this handy infographic, which helps explain why anyone would waste their time doing anything other than catching the snitch, getting the most points, and ending the game, but hey, I guess it’s better not to ask such questions.

J.K. Rowling writes that Ilvermorny was a magical school of witchcraft and wizardry, founded by a pureblood Irish wizard named Isolt Sayre in the 17th century. Ilvermorny sat atop the highest peak of Mount Greylock enshrouded by powerful concealment enchantments.

Sayre was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin and the renowned Irish witch Morrigan. Sayre lived with her parents in a small Irish town till the day her mother's estranged sister Gormlaith Gaunt (pureblood zealot) murdered Sayre's parents and kidnapped her away to Hag's Glen to stop her from marrying a muggle.

A decade later, following imprisonment and continued attempts at indoctrinating Sayre, she stole her aunt's wand, and managed an escape.

Sayre went on to pose as a Muggle boy, sailing to the 'New World', where she came across a wealth of magical creatures and fellow wizards that'd ultimately help her create Ilvermorny.

The four Ilvermorny houses are named after magical creatures:

Horned Serpent – a ‘great horned river serpent with a jewel set into its forehead’

Pukwudgie – ‘a short, grey-faced, large-eared creature’

Thunderbird – a creature that ‘can create storms as it flies’

Wampus – ‘a magical, panther-like creature that is fast, strong and almost impossible to kill’

Graeme Whiting, the principal of a British private school suggested that fantasy books like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones (to name a few) can damage the subconscious of a child and cause mental illness. In this longer than necessary blog post he talks about how by the age of 30 he had read all the books he wanted to and that children don't have "thinking brains" until at least the age of 14.

He prefers that kids stick to the classics that aren't "sensationalized" with tales of magic or anything interesting.

This has led many critics to ask several questions such as, "Does he seriously think Game of Thrones is for kids?" and "What kind of boring Shakespeare plays is he reading?"

In preparation for 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' which is set in the U.S., J.K. Rowling plans to release four new segments of writing about the history of magic in North America. The video description hints that tomorrow's piece will reveal more information about Ilvermorny, the magical school in North America. According to Pottermore, each piece will be released at 2pm GMT:

The first instalment of this exciting new series is called ‘History of Magic in North America’ and will be published on Pottermore in four pieces, starting tomorrow at 2pm GMT. Another piece will be revealed each day at 2pm until Friday 11 March.